volkswagen diesel starting problems

hey all. i have a 1991 golf diesel, it has been starting and running great. but when i got back from a long trip, it has had a hard time starting. when it does go it runs great, but everytime after that it has a hard time starting again. please help..........thanks phill

Reply to
thecokebear
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Pin hole in the fuel line??

How long were you gone? Are you sure the battery is still in good order?

OT .. This last week there seems to have been a large number of post where the writer has forgone the usual upper case for the word " I " Has there been some change I was not told about??

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

Are the glow plugs working ?

Lynn

Reply to
Lynn McGuire

I also drive a 91 VW Diesel (Jetta). First thing I did was replace the

50A fuse on the firewall with a flat piece of copper. Some of the guys I know just connected the two wires to the fuse together. The OE fuse tends to crack through the "A" in 50A and cannot be seen until you remove it and it comes off in two pieces. The next thing to check is the glow plug relay. Put a volt meter on the glow plug bus bar and have someone turn the ignition on. You should see battery voltage. If not, the relay is bad. If that test was good, remove the bus bar from all 4 plugs and measure the resistance of each plug with an ohmmeter set to the lowest resistance setting. You should see 1.0 - 1.2 ohms. Each plug draws 10-12 amps new. Anything over 1.2 ohms is not good and should be replaced. More critical if you live in a colder climate. To make it easier to remove and install the bus bar and glow plugs, I remove metal from the bottom of each hole for the glow plug studs on the bus bar for the left three plugs. That way, I can install the glow plugs with the nut loosely installed, slide the bus bar down between the glow plug and nut, and tighten the nut. No more losing the nuts behind the inj. pump and time is reduced by half to R&R any glow plugs. Let us know what you discovered. It has to be one of the above.
Reply to
Corrado Daddy

thanks alot for the info guys i will give it a try and let oyu know

Corrado Daddy wrote:

Reply to
thecokebear via CarKB.com

You have already gotten very good answers and a list of things to check. I'll only add that I have had glow plugs die after a long trip. My theory is that the heat associated with a long, extended drive, particularly if hills (which cause engine to run even hotter) were involved can be the last straw for glow plugs that may already be on their way out.

good luck figuring it out. It is a pretty simple system.

Reply to
Tony Bad

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